A Little Dab
by deagh
Summary: Character exploration piece to help me figure out how Cullen Rutherford got from where he was at the end of DA2 to where he is at the beginning of DAI. Also, what happened to his hair? (Yes, that's where the title comes from) Takes place between DA2 and DAI Rated M to be safe because it takes place in a brothel and contains a bit of language and non-explicit sex and nudity.


_A/N: I'm currently working on a piece that explores some of the behind the scenes happenings in DAI, primarily from Cullen's perspective. This is a little character development piece that I just had to get written down. He's evolved a lot over the games, and I need to know what makes him tick. One of the first things I said to myself upon seeing Cullen in DAI was "What happened to his hair?" I like the change, mind, but I had to have an explanation for it. So, of course, my mind started turning over several scenarios as to what might have happened, and this is what emerged. This takes place not too long before the events of DAI, probably sometime in 9:40. Kirkwall is still reeling from the effects of the Chantry explosion, as is all of Thedas, but enough time has passed that at least some of day to day life has been restored._

* * *

><p>Cullen walked into the Blooming Rose and looked around. Good - not too crowded. He'd be having supper earlier than he usually did, but he did not mind. He did not often get away these days. The Templar Order and the City Guard had their collective hands full rebuilding Kirkwall.<p>

"Ah, Knight-Captain. Good to see you. What may we do for you today?" the madam asked.

"A table, please, if one's available, Madam Lusine," he responded.

"Ah, just here for a meal, then? The girls will be heartbroken. Thanks to your templars we're getting regular deliveries again, so you won't be disappointed with your meal," she said.

"I am here for a meal, but after, perhaps. Is May working this evening?" he asked.

"She is, indeed. I'll ensure she's available in...an hour?"

"That should be fine," Cullen answered.

Cullen was pleased to find that the food had improved at the Rose - apparently the efforts of the guards and the templars had indeed borne fruit, as it were. The vegetables were reasonably fresh, and the meat...he thought it was probably nug, although there was enough brown sauce on it that it was hard to tell, was chewable, at least. It certainly was better than what they were serving in the mess hall at the Gallows. He was just eating the last of the bread when May slid into the seat across from him.

"Hello, Knight-Captain," she said, seductive smile firmly in place. She looked different than she had, although admittedly it had been nearly six months since he'd last visited the Rose. She had put on a bit of much needed weight. She had curves again, which was in his mind a good thing. He hadn't minded when she was so thin she looked nearly elven, but...well, a bit of softness was nice. He wasn't about to tell her that, though. He learned from his sisters to never, ever tell a woman she looked like she'd put on weight, even if it was meant as a compliment. There was something else different about her as well, although he could not quite put his finger on it. Perhaps her hair was different. Well, no matter. He wasn't here for her looks, after all, though she was pretty enough.

"May, I've asked you to call me Cullen," he said.

"All right...Cullen...We haven't seen you in a while. We've missed you," she said.

"Keeping order and helping rebuild the city takes most of my time," Cullen answered. He relentlessly squashed the thought of all the paperwork that was waiting for him. Aveline told him time and again that the paperwork would keep and that he needed a night away from the Gallows now and again to retain his sanity. Spending the evening thinking about the work he wasn't doing would certainly not relax him.

"Oh, I'm sure it does, and we're all so very grateful. If you like, you could come upstairs with me and I could show you just how grateful we all are," she said, reaching across the table and trailing a finger across his hand.

"That would be quite nice," he responded. _Nice? Really? That's the best you can do, Cullen? Ah well, you have coin, you don't need pretty words, and I'm sure she's heard worse._ The faintly amused smile on her face seemed to confirm that she wasn't offended, at least.

"Well, follow me, Cullen," she said, and led the way up the stairs.

_She's definitely put on a few pounds, _he thought, as he watched her arse sway as she climbed the steps. In an odd way it made him proud. People were no longer going hungry in Kirkwall...at least not if they were willing to work. _Right, Cullen, mind on the matter at hand. Think about the arse, not how it got to be so nicely rounded._

The room she led him into was up one more flight of stairs than he was used to, and was much smaller. He wondered if this was the room where she slept. There were a few personal things here and there, which the more opulent rooms downstairs never had. It was clean and had a bed,though, and that's all that really mattered, he supposed. She closed the door behind them and latched it, then turned to him with a seductive smile.

"You're not wearing armour," she said.

"Should I be? I'm off duty," he answered.

"Some do...they like me to pretend to be an apostate. You know, 'Oh, Ser Templar, I'm a very naughty mage. I'll do _anything_ not to go back to the tower," she said, which made Cullen tense.

"If you, or any of the others, get abused by any of my men, you have the madam come to me, and I will make sure it never happens again," he ground out, dropping the hands that had started to reach for her.

She looked surprised, then shook her head. "No, no, you don't understand. Some of the others, they...like that sort of thing, or at least they don't mind it if the client pays extra, you know? and just in case, one of the toughs stands in the hall. We have a code if we're in real trouble," May said.

Cullen unclenched his jaw and nodded. He would not stand for his templars abusing anyone, not even whores. He supposed if the templar was paying a whore who knew was he or she was getting and was getting extra coin for it, that was different.

"And now you're all tense. Here, sit, let me help," May said.

"It's all right, there's no need…" Cullen protested.

"Sit!" May commanded. Cullen sat. May knelt on the bed behind him and started rubbing his shoulders.

"Maker's Breath, that feels nice," he breathed, closing his eyes. It had been so long since he'd been touched.

"I imagine it does. Your neck and shoulders are like steel. I thought for a minute you were wearing armour after all," she said, which made him smile, just a bit, even as he relaxed under her hands. Her hands moved into his hair as she massaged his scalp, and he began to feel the stirrings of desire for what had brought him to the Rose in the first place.

"Such lovely blond curls. Most women at the Rose would kill for hair like this," she murmured, which made Cullen snort a brief laugh.

"Not you?" he asked.

"No...mine is already curly, and I can't stand it. All these girls who sleep in curling papers every night, and here I am, straightening mine. I suppose we all want what we don't have," she said.

"Maker, that's what was different - your hair," Cullen said, turning to look at her. "How?" he asked.

"Nuh-uh, that's not what you came here for," she said, unbuttoning her tunic.

_I'll have to ask her, afterwards, _he thought as he watched her tunic part and then fall. _Yes, definitely put on some weight_, was his last coherent thought as she reached for the buttons on his shirt. Then there was just her hands, her skin, her taste, her heat, her legs gripping his waist, and finally, his release.

* * *

><p>"So, how did you get your hair so straight? I seem to remember it was almost as curly as mine," Cullen asked, after his breathing had calmed. May seemed in no hurry to get up and dressed, so he supposed she didn't have another client waiting. It was..nice...to just lay here with her. He'd bought her services enough times over the past few years that he was comfortable talking to her, and she was clean and she smelled good. Laying on the relatively narrow bed with her was no hardship. Besides, if he went back to the Gallows now he'd probably go back to his office and work.<p>

May chuckled and propped herself up on one elbow. "I had hoped you'd forgotten about that. Was I that bad?" she teased.

"Oh I did forget...for a while. But if there's some way to tame this mop, I'd like to know it," he answered, raking a hand through his own tight curls

"Fair enough. Hair wax. They make it in Orlais, and for a long time no one was sending it here. Couldn't have afforded it anyway, I suppose. So I'd run out when you last saw me."

Cullen reached his hand towards her hair and then stopped. "May I?" he asked.

"After what we just did? I would hope I wouldn't mind, but thank you for asking," she said with a smile.

Cullen felt May's hair and then rubbed his fingers together. "Ah, yes, I can feel it. I was expecting it to be stiffer, though," he said, which made May grin.

"That's what she said," she quipped, which made him laugh. There was a time it would have made him blush, but no longer. He still had trouble talking to women sometimes, at least until he was comfortable with them, but he certainly didn't run in terror when a woman flirted with him, not anymore, anyway..

"What's in this hair wax?" he asked, rubbing his fingers together again. Wax, of course, and something else. Bit of lavender, he thought. That was more feminine than he wanted to smell, but he would imagine whoever made it made some that had more masculine scents.

"There's oil in it, and some other things. The fellow I buy it from either doesn't know or won't tell me. I tried to make some myself, but it was an oily mess, so I just buy it." May ran a hand through Cullen's hair. "You'll never get the curl all the way out. I just use a little dab...you might have to use more, and you'd have to do it every day...or at least every time you washed your hair. And you'd have to start rinsing your hair with vinegar to get all the wax out. Make sure you rinse out the vinegar really well, unless you want to smell like pickles," May said, which gave Cullen pause. That was a lot of trouble to go to...but he really hated his hair the way it was now. He'd tried for years to not let concern him, as he was sure it wasn't seemly for a templar to be vain...but his older brother had teased him about his girly curls too often. The time he'd held Cullen down and tied ribbons in his hair and made sure the village girls saw him, that was just too much. If there was a way to make the curls into something more manly, he was all for it.

"So, where do I buy this stuff and, if I get some, could you show me how to use it?" he asked.

"Of course," she said. "They have a stall in Lowtown. It's easy to find. There's a sign up saying the King of Ferelden uses their product," May said. "The things people will say to sell something, right? Anyway, perhaps you could come by one day next week? We could fix your hair..afterward?"

"I'd like that. I'll arrange it so i have a free evening," he promised, although he knew he would be working late into the night for the next week to make that happen. It would be worth it, he thought, to make this blasted curly hair go away, or at least tame it into something more masculine. Getting his wick dipped again wouldn't be a hardship, either. He could spare the coin - Maker knew he had little to spend his stipend on, these days. He'd have to make time to do so more often, though. He felt looser than he had in weeks...months, even. He might actually get a good night's sleep tonight.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Hair wax, in one form or another, has been around since Roman times, if not earlier, so it's certainly plausible that it was available in Thedas. People in our world have been using vinegar on their hair and skin at least as long, so that is also no stretch to think that Thedosians would use it that way as well. As for Cullen's visiting the Rose..well, he says himself that he's taken no vows of celibacy, and never has. He's a very different man than he was in Origins - very different from who we see in DA2, for that matter. I can see the man he is now visiting a whorehouse, so here we are. As for May, I'm aware there is no May mentioned in DA2. I'm assuming she arrived after the Chantry blew. Whores don't have that long of a career, after all. <em>

_Also, it's come to my attention that I missed checking off the "Complete" box on this story. My apologies, it's correct now._


End file.
